7:45 am, October 28, 2026
A family-run used car dealership that accused its local authority of trying to force it out of business has been given the green light to stay open after a bitter planning dispute.
Horsepower Cars, based in Culloden near Inverness, is set to resume car sales after Highland Council’s licensing committee unanimously granted two licences for a full three-year term.
Owner Angus MacKillop had faced objections from the council’s planning team and a member of the public, while a second public objection was ruled too late to be considered at the hearing.
The decision follows months of uncertainty for the business, which operates from land around the family’s home and has been embroiled in a long-running planning dispute with the local authority.
Car Dealer reported in September that MacKillop had accused councillors of putting pressure on the planning department as part of a plan to force him out of business.
He also said he felt ‘victimised’ after his licence renewal application became the subject of objections.
The latest hearing concerned the renewal of the existing second-hand vehicle dealer licence at the firm’s Reduit House base, as well as a new licence for the neighbouring Reduit Lodge, also owned by the family.
MacKillop’s lawyer, Baktosch Gillan, asked the committee to grant both applications, with a condition that Reduit House be used for car sales rather than vehicle storage. Cars will instead be stored at Reduit Lodge.
It had initially been proposed that the Reduit House licence be granted for just one year, giving MacKillop time to secure the necessary planning permission for vehicle storage.
However, the committee agreed to grant both licences for the full three years.
Speaking after the decision, MacKillop told the Inverness Courier: ‘We are just delighted and relieved and we can get back to normal now and our staff and stuff are securing their jobs because it’s been a big worry for everybody over one single objector who, at the end of the day, was proven in there today to have any objection at all – we’re in business, Horsepower Cars continues.
‘We are very grateful for the planning committee today to do that for us as well, who absolutely seemed to understand fully the whole situation and the objections had no weight effectively.’
The licensing battle followed earlier planning enforcement action over the dealership’s use of the site.
Highland Council had previously refused an application for a Certificate of Lawful Existing Use and issued an enforcement notice.
A subsequent appeal to the Scottish Government’s Planning and Environment Appeals Division ruled that the business could continue operating from the northern part of the site.
The latest decision secures the future of the family-run business for the next three years.